Couple in Drug-Planting Case Fast-Track Arraignment

The Irvine couple arrested in June, accused of conspiring to plant drugs in an elementary school volunteer's car and calling police to report the drugs from a Newport Beach hotel, will be arraigned Monday in Santa Ana.

Kent Wycliffe Easter, 38, and Jill Bjorkholm Easter, 38, are charged with conspiring to get the volunteer arrested and jailed. They are also accused of conspiring to file a fake crime report.

According to the Orange County district attorney, the Easters requested to fast-track their court appearance, moving the arraignment date from Tuesday as previously scheduled to Monday.

The husband and wife, both attorneys, were  on $20,000 bail. According to court records, they posted bail June 26.

According investigators, the Easters thought the volunteer had not supervised their son properly and so retaliated by going to her home early Feb. 16, 2011, and stashing drugs in her car.

Kent Easter intentionally left the drugs in plain sight, prosecutors contend. As he drove to and from the volunteer's home, the Easters were allegedly in constant phone and text message contact, police said.

Kent Easter called the Irvine Police Department that afternoon, and under a fake name and number told a dispatcher that he had seen erratic driver park at the elementary school, according to police.

He said he saw the volunteer, who he named, hide a bag of drugs behind her driver's seat in her car, according to the OCDA. He also described the volunteer's car to the dispatcher, including its license plate number.

Irvine police officers responded to Kent Easter's call and found the bag of drugs in the volunteer's vehicle. The volunteer, who was detained by police for about two hours, said that the drugs did not belong to her and she did not know how they ended up in her car. She agreed to a search of her home, which did not turn up any evidence of drug use or possession, polie said.

Once police discovered the volunteer had been in a classroom at the time Kent Easter claimed to have seen her hide drugs in her car, they began investigating whether the drugs had been planted.

The investigation led to the Easters, including surveillance video of Kent Easter from a Newport Beach hotel near where he worked, from which police allege he placed the Feb. 16 call to police.

The Easters were arrested on $20,000 bail. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of three years in state prison.